In the Company of Hope
Sunday Collect – May 8, 2022
The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. –Barbara Kingsolver
COLLECT
Though we had break the beginning of this week, here’s a recap/summary of the week’s prayers and contemplations.
THURSDAY
We gave blessings of hope with Beatitudes for a Divine Life
FRIDAY
We had an epiphany of hope!
SATURDAY
We practiced our weekly examen of hope.
PRAXIS
Hope lies in the company that we keep. So keep company with people that give you hope. Perhaps this what Jesus meant when he said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them.” When we are gathered in a spaces that bind us in the work of love, faith, hope, justice and healing, the author of love, faith, hope, justice and healing is with us.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Nazarene Transliteration
Oh Thou, from whom the breath of life comes, who fills all realms of sound, light and vibration. May Your light be experienced in my utmost holiest. Your Heavenly Domain approaches. Let Your will come true - in the universe (all that vibrates) just as on earth (that is material and dense). Give us wisdom (understanding, assistance) for our daily need, detach the fetters of faults that bind us, (karma) like we let go the guilt of others. Let us not be lost in superficial things (materialism, common temptations), but let us be freed from that what keeps us from our true purpose. From You comes the all-working will, the lively strength to act, the song that beautifies all and renews itself from age to age. Sealed in trust, faith and truth. (I confirm with my entire being)
What Gives Me Hope
Safety
A home
A room
Sunlighlight streaming in through the curtains
Music
Dance
Children laughing, learning, summer camp
Collaboration
It's no longer hoping
For the strength or talent of writer or sketch artist
To be able to tell my story
It's no longer probing the wounds of childhood or
Reliving unintentionally quiet abandonment
It's seeing what I see, and
Having the sense to love myself enough
To put myself with friends who see it too
It's rest for the vigilante watcher of adults
It's no longer hope of having
An unbroken family or fatherhood, or
Belonging to a denomination or club
It's no longer in never being alone again
Although I hope not!
What Gives me hope is the company of people who see like I do
Anywhere I find them
What Gives me hope is being able to avoid places, spaces and people when it's time
Money gives me hope now. It never used to.
Paying child support gives me hope.
Supportive, affirming work, opportunity for enough apt work and the strength to do enough of it gives me hope
Food and health
Someone who loves me gives me hope
Shining my sunshine gives me hope
Recognizing it in us gives me hope
I love this translation of the Lord's Prayer. Beautiful.